Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Suspects and sexy invitations
Declan
As soon as the last bit of equipment was in the back of Paula’s van, I raced down the street to Gideon’s pub. The pub was busy, which made sense. It was Saturday night, after all.
But Gideon wasn’t in sight.
“Hi!” I said to a beautiful woman who was standing behind the bar. Her long red hair had a striking white streak down the left side. “Is Gideon here?”
“Why?” She tilted her head to the side as she eyed me, reminding me of a curious puppy. Then she sniffed the air. Her eyes widened. “Oh! You’re…”
“I’m what?” I prompted when she didn’t finish her sentence.
“I didn’t realize Gideon was serious about anyone.” She grinned and held out her hand. “I’m Sable. And I’ll bet you’re Declan.”
“Yep.” I shook her hand. “I’m Elwood’s grandson.”
How did she know who I was? Or that I was seeing Gideon? Oh, wait. Was this another of those sexual energy things? Or… Oh, God. She’d sniffed me.
Did that mean every single person in town knew Gideon and I had been together this afternoon? Could no one have a secret when there was magic around?
“I figured,” she said. “Everyone’s been talking about Gideon taking you around the festival and stuff.”
“Um, yeah…” I shifted back and forth on my feet. My cheeks heated.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Shifters are all a bunch of nosy bastards, particularly when it comes to our alpha. But it’s just because we’re all happy he’s found someone.”
“Yeah. Um. Okay.” I adjusted my glasses. “So, is he here? In the back, maybe?”
Sable shook her head. “Nope. He’s gone over to Elwood’s. I think they’re having one of those support group meetings.”
“Right. I’ll…” I pointed over my shoulder toward the door.
“Oh, you’re a cutie.” She winked at me. “I can see why he’s into you.”
Yeah, I didn’t know what that meant, so I hurried to the exit before any other embarrassing things happened.
The door to The Mystic Menagerie was unlocked, so I slipped inside. I heard voices coming from the back of the shop. Could I crash their meeting? That didn’t seem very polite, but I had news! Everyone would want to know, wouldn’t they?
It wouldn’t hurt to check and see, right? If they were discussing serious topics, I’d leave them to it and tell them what I’d found out later.
When I got to the threshold, I heard Gideon say, “Now, does anyone have anything else?”
I peeked into the room.
“Oh! Declan! You’re here!” Hazel gushed, spying me immediately. She beckoned me in with one of her long black spider legs. I barely suppressed a shiver at the sight of it. “Come join us, dear. I feel like we have so much to talk about.”
“We do?” I asked. Why did I get the feeling I was missing something?
Now everyone else was looking at me, too.
My gaze, on the other hand, went straight to Gideon’s.
His cheeks were a little darker than normal.
It didn’t feel overly warm in here, so I wondered why he was flushed.
Maybe he was thinking about how we parted this afternoon.
Or all the things we’d gotten up to before that?
Okay, yeah. It was hot in here, wasn’t it?
I swallowed. “So, it’s okay if I come in?”
“Of course, Declan,” Elwood answered for the group. “I’d planned to invite you to join our next meeting. I would’ve invited you tonight, too, but I wasn’t sure where you’d run off to.”
“That wasn’t the smartest thing to do, dear,” Hazel said in a tone that reminded me of my mother. “Not when a murderer is running around killing people.”
“I just went next door to help Paula.” I made my way to an empty chair.
“Oh, don’t sit there,” Hazel said. “Why don’t you sit over where Az is. Az, you come over here.” She patted the seat beside her with one of her spider paws–or were they feet?
Taking Az’s seat would put me right beside Gideon (and well away from Hazel’s eight extra limbs). That sounded perfect to me, but I didn’t want to put anyone out. Az stared at Hazel for a long moment, but then he got up and moved to the other chair without saying a word.
“I would have been okay over there,” I mumbled, “but uh, thanks, I guess.”
I shuffled to the newly empty seat and sat down. Sandy and Tulip wore giddy smiles on their faces as their gazes bounced between Gideon and me. Yep. They knew what’d happened this afternoon. No doubt about it.
“So, what is this, exactly?” I asked.
Tulip straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Welcome to the Ravenstone Misfit Monsters’ Support Group.”
“Right. I remember Elwood talking about misfit monsters. But I still don’t quite understand what it is.”
“We meet to support one another,” Elwood said.
“Sometimes, supernaturals face special challenges navigating a human-dominated world. Or sometimes it’s good for us to know we have a safe place while we grow and develop into the person we’re supposed to be, particularly if we don’t fit neatly into societal norms, whether those are monster norms or human norms.”
“But calling yourself a misfit monster? That seems kind of rude, doesn’t it?”
“It wasn’t my first choice.” Elwood shrugged. “But we voted and that’s the one that was chosen.”
“I like it,” Tulip said with a wide, open-mouthed grin that showed off her jagged teeth, as if to display exactly how much of a monster she was.
“And you were going to invite me? But I’m not a monster.”
“Meh. Magic, monster.” Tulip tipped her hand from side to side in a seesaw motion. “It’s all the same, really.”
“You’re new to magic,” Gideon said, drawing my attention back to him. “It wouldn’t hurt to know you have a group you can turn to for support if you need it.”
“That makes sense.” I nodded, even though I had no idea what I would say in a support group for monsters.
“We were wrapping up our meeting,” Gideon said. Then he looked around the room. “Unless anyone has anything else they’d like to discuss.” His gaze returned to me. “Including you, Declan.”
“About monsters and magic and stuff? No. About murder? Yes.”
I swore everyone in the room except Az and Elwood leaned forward.
“What did you find out?” Tulip asked. Her teeth were even pointier now.
“Oh! Do we have a new suspect?” Hazel’s legs—all eight of them—quivered. “Let me know if you want me to wrap them up in a web so you can interrogate them.”
“Let’s finish with the misfits’ meeting first,” Elwood interjected. “We’re here to help, and it has been a trying week. We need to take the time to take care of our mental health first.”
“It’ll be less trying once we know who the killer is,” Tulip muttered. “Then we should vote to decide what should happen to them.”
Elwood merely lifted his eyebrow at her. Then he turned to the vampire. “Mellgren? How are you feeling now?”
“I’m better,” the vampire said as he adjusted the collar on his shirt. “But I would like to suggest we still meet on our usual day and time this week.”
“Of course.” When no one else spoke up, Elwood nodded. “Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight. And please reach out any time if you feel you need it. That’s what we’re here for.”
Then everyone twisted in their seats to look at me again. On the far side of the room, the boards were turning around, as if on their own. Eugene must have been doing it, but I couldn’t see his shadowy form from where I was sitting.
“This afternoon when we were looking over Eugene and Tulip’s murder boards…”
“We have murder boards?” Sandy asked, spinning in his seat to look at the work that’d been done. Both boards were now turned so that all the information was visible. “Wow!”
“Right? That’s what I said when I saw them earlier,” I agreed.
Since I’d last seen the boards, a few more things had been added, like a bit of red yarn connecting Leon to the dagger that’d killed Jim.
“Very well done,” Hazel said. “But that red yarn is rather coarse and tatty. Why, it almost looks like twine.” She tutted. “I will get you something better to use. Something in a lovely natural fiber like cotton.”
“Well, we might not need the board much longer,” I said.
“Leon didn’t do it,” Gideon said quickly. He shot me an apologetic look.
“I know.” I sighed. “He was with Paula the whole afternoon when Jim was killed. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t murder Winston.”
“He said he was attending an online auction that night.”
I paused as I considered that. “And you believe him?”
“I do,” Gideon said. “He said he saw Lily on the street that night, though…”
“So, she might have seen or heard something,” I finished for him.
That was a good lead. Maybe we should interview all the people who’d been at the festival meeting.
Any one of them might have noticed something and dismissed it as unimportant.
Huh. We probably should have done that right at the start.
“Does that mean Janis did it? Or Mason?” Sandy stroked his chin as he studied the board. “There really isn’t anyone else, is there?”
“Well…” I paused for dramatic effect, because why not? I felt like Hercule Poirot about to do the grand reveal. “It turns out Jim had cameras set up next door…”
Gasps rose up around the room.
“So, who did it?” Tulip stared at me without blinking. Moisture was shedding from her like a waterfall. I needed to get pee pads to put under her chair or maybe a kiddie pool to collect the water.
“I don’t know,” I confessed.
Everyone slumped back in their chairs.
Oops. If I acted like I was doing a grand reveal, I should have realized they would expect me to identify the murderer.
“What do you mean?” Gideon asked.
“I was talking to Paula. She said a bunch of interesting things, like things being different from how the construction crew had left them that night, but the key thing is that there were cameras and now they’re missing.”
“The killer stole the evidence that’d incriminate them,” Az said as he folded his arms over his chest. He clearly wasn’t impressed with my announcement.
“Well, yes, it looks that way. But she thinks the recordings might have been backed up on the cloud. She’s going to check.”
Everyone gaped at me.
“Shit. I shouldn’t have said that to everyone. Oh, man, I hope none of you are the murderer.” Sometimes my mouth got ahead of my head.
“The murderer isn’t here,” Elwood said. “I’d have felt the need to smudge again if they were.”
“Okay. That’s good.” Phew. Then I stared at my grandfather. “But if you can sense the murderer’s energy or whatever, why don’t you walk around town until you find them?”
Elwood didn’t look impressed. “It doesn’t work that way. I’m not a walking crime detector. But I can sense worry and foreboding and anxiety and anger… amongst other things.”
Yeah, okay. I already knew what some of those other things were.
“Over the course of the meeting,” Elwood continued, “the energy here has eased for everyone present. But if the murderer was here, it would have grown heavy again once we started talking about the murders.”
“But, just so we’re clear, the information Declan shared with us doesn’t leave this room, got it?” Gideon asked with a deep growly voice as he stared each person in the eye until they nodded or angled their head to the side to expose their necks in acquiescence.
“That’s still excellent news, dear,” Hazel said after Gideon finished intimidating his friends. “Do let us know if you need any help to wrap this all up. My silk is very sturdy, much better than those handcuffs the humans insist on using. My husband has tested it.”
I really hoped I wouldn’t have nightmares from that bit of information. And for some disturbing reason, I was also now wondering if Hazel’s husband had a bondage kink.
I’ll take Things I never wanted to imagine for five hundred, Alex.
“Eugene, can you update the boards?” Gideon asked.
The shadow undulated, and I assumed that meant he’d agreed.
After that, the meeting broke up quickly. Perhaps the others had exciting Saturday night plans. I didn’t, but I could think of things I might like to do. With Gideon, specifically.
As if Gideon read my thoughts and agreed with them, he was the last to leave.
I walked with him to the door. I wanted to invite him upstairs, but Elwood was home now.
And if my grandfather could sense we’d had sex after we’d finished, I could only imagine what he’d pick up on while we were actually doing it.
I’d never be able to relax knowing that.
Gideon cupped the back of my head with his hand and drew me close. Then he stared into my eyes and said, “Come home with me tonight.”